Unless the cook in your house
starts the turkey at 3:00 AM, the earliest hour that you
can expect to sit down to dinner is noon.

So what are you going to do to take
the edge off your appetite while you wait?

A bowl of Corn Flakes hardly seems
the right way to start off a four-day Thanksgiving
weekend eating binge. Cold cereal doesn't taste good and
doesn't fill you up.

What I recommend is to treat your
family to an honest to goodness cup of steaming hot
chocolate.

Mind you, I said, "Hot
Chocolate." We'll not have any watered down cocoa to
start off Thanksgiving.

Hot chocolate is easy to make and
may just end up being more fondly remembered than your
special stuffing or Grandmother's pumpkin pie.

On a recent trip to New York, I
noticed that hot chocolate—selling for $7 a cup—had
made a remarkable comeback. Once a mainstay of French,
Belgian, Spanish and Austrian coffeehouses, many of New
York's most renowned pastry chefs have added the item to
their dessert menus.

Bruno Feldeisen of the Four Seasons Hotel on East 57th
St is convinced that hot chocolate delivers the highest
chocolate experience possible.

"The heat, flavor and aroma are
equally powerful and because it is liquid, hot chocolate
can immediately deliver chocolate's 'profound essence,'"
said Feldeisen.

Feldeisen created his own
"Molten Hot Chocolate" menu that includes 16
flavoring options. Among them are Chinese five-spice
powder, peppermint, peanut butter, banana or, if you
dare, chili pepper. The ingredients of most-requested
item, "Whispering Heaven," remain a closely
guarded Feldeisen secret.

Before sharing Feldeisen's recipe,
I'll offer a few cautionary notes. While it is true that
hot chocolate can be made with 2% milk or even with
water, please do not do so. Hot chocolate with low fat
milk or water will taste surprisingly good but will not
have the velvet texture we are looking for.

Be sure to use bittersweet
chocolate that has a high cocoa-butter content ranging
from 51 to 70 percent.

Avoid the urge to top your creation
off with Kool-Whip.

Here's how to do it. You'll need 10
ounces of the highest quality bittersweet chocolate. Do
not use supermarket chocolate. [Joenote
to VDARE.COM readers:Buy American! I use only
Scharfenberger made right here in California.]
You'll also need a quart of whole milk and a half-cup of
cream.

Bring the milk and cream to a
boil and add the chocolate that you have chopped into
small pieces.

Reduce the heat to low and stir
until the chocolate has melted. Then beat with a whisk
for about 10 minutes until the mixture is light and
fluffy. Expect to spend five minutes whisking.

Add the flavoring of your
choice—I like peppermint—and let stand for 20 minutes
while the flavors develop. Either keep warm in a good
thermos or reheat slowly before serving.

With a little more effort, you can
make your hot chocolate even more memorable. Homemade
marshmallows are easy and fun. But you may not have the
time on the night before Thanksgiving. A meringue
topping is quick—only ten minutes—but not really worthy
of your chocolate creation.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and
sugar. Then, in a well-chilled bowl combine the cream
and ½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and whip until
soft peaks form. Then gradually add the cocoa mixture
until completely blended.

You may think that adding chocolate
whipped cream to a cup of hot chocolate is gilding the
lily. I assure you that it is not.

The only thing that could make your
Thanksgiving morning cup of hot chocolate more enjoyable
would be sub-freezing temperatures. That's when hot
chocolate is the best.

But even in our temperate Lodi
winters, you'll take plenty of pleasure in good home
made hot chocolate.

One final thought: this recipe
makes four large cups of hot chocolate. In the unlikely
event you have any left over, let it cool completely,
place it in a large coffee cup and freeze. Then, when
you're ready, take it from the freezer and let it
defrost about 75% of the way.

What you'll have then is a great
ice cream like concoction that makes a great dessert.

Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English
at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly
column since 1988. It currently appears in the
Lodi News-Sentinel.